Eurospin Opens 50 New Stores In 2017, Plans European Expansion new new

Italian discount retailer Eurospin has achieved its target of opening 50 new stores in 2017.

CEO Romano Mion told Il Sole 24 Ore that this year’s growth has been above what was anticipated, and added that the company’s priority will continue to be the opening of new stores that are owned, directly managed, or run by partners.

Regarding possible expansions, he said that Europe is preferable to the US, mainly for logistical reasons, but did not reveal any more details.

Business Strategy

The business strategy of Eurospin is to deploy the same store formats and product assortments (including around 2,000 references), in a similar manner to German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Each new store is set to break even within the first year, with sales offsetting the cost of land and the construction of the supermarket.

Eurospin is controlled by Migross, Shop, Dao Cooperativa and Vega. It currently operates over 1,100 stores, including more than 60 in Slovenia.

The retailer ended 2016 with a turnover of €4.7 billion (+6.8%), and is targeting €5 billion for 2017. The company has a market share in Italy of around 7%.